Rain, Rain, Go Away
by The Once Caged Bird
Summary: After a hard mission, the team is stuck in the rain. Thor doesn't seem to mind, and in the end, neither does Natasha. Team dynamics piece. Drabble.


**A/N: It may interest/enrage you guys to know that I was working on drabbles instead of my two main stories. Before you guys go all rage monster on me, I should say that these are mostly for writing practice, motivation, and fun. Hopefully they won't interfere too much, and I hope you enjoy them. Thanks!**

**1st of The Avengers Misadventures series**

**Edit: This is not a new story, just separating out the Avengers Misadventures ^^;**

* * *

Main Characters: Thor and Natasha

Theme: General

Pairings: N/A

Rating: G

1. Rain, rain, go away

Rain pattered against the hull of the quinjet, pounding along in perfect rhythm with Natasha's somewhat-more-than-mild headache, and doing little for her tenuous grip on civility. The fact that Tony Stark occupied the same enclosed space as her and was currently talking the ear off of their pilot only furthered her grievances and caused her to – briefly – entertain the thought of shoving him bodily out of the aircraft. He was wearing his suit after all; it wasn't like the drop would kill him.

Wearily, she knuckled her temples, careful to avoid the slightly raised and tender bump just behind her left ear. Across from her, Thor, for once, looked as tired as all of them – sans Tony – felt. He too had his chin resting in his hands and, when he caught her eyes, offered only a tired smile instead of his usual boisterous grin. Though he wasn't taking home any wounds as souvenirs, he _was _sporting some rather impressive bags under his eyes. Natasha made a mental note to look into that and maybe even let Cap know that Thor wasn't… what? Sleeping? Feeling well? Did gods even get sick? She'd think on it more when she had the energy and the mere act of raising her head didn't induce multicolored pyrotechnics behind her eyes.

Off to her left, said Cap – _the_ Captain America, the _living legend_ – was leaning against another said legend – Dr. Bruce Banner – in a very undignified, and un-legendary way. In fact, the two of them looked more like college kids after an all-nighter. If the all-nighter included a couple of bar fights and unfortunate encounters with rather irate cats.

Both, however, looked a far cry better than Clint, who had had the misfortune of running out of arrows at a most inopportune time. I.e. he'd taken a fairly robust clobbering to the ribs followed by an unfriendly prod to the eye by a low level flunky with more adrenaline than brains. Honestly, Natasha thought his pride hurt worse than his body at the moment. Though, judging by the way his left arm curled around his midriff even in sleep, she'd say that his body was coming in a very close second. She winced in sympathy and wished they'd get back to base quickly so they could all get some pain meds and some sleep. A cup of something warm to drink wouldn't go amiss either, as cold as it was and as soaked as they were.

At thoughts of the cold, Natasha's body gave an involuntary shudder, and she had to clamp her teeth hard together to keep them from chattering and making her head ache more – though the act of clenching her jaw sent bolts of pain through her skull all the same. She closed her eyes and forcefully breathed in and out until the pain had faded into nothing more than a dull buzz in the back of her head – a throbbing that could be easily ignored, unlike the cold. Resigned to endure the shivering, she debated on whether or not she should attempt to follow her teammates' examples and sleep or should stay awake purely on the principle that she couldn't comfortably rest her head anywhere in this position. _Not, _she reasoned with herself, _that these are the worst sleeping conditions I've ever faced. Perhaps I'm getting soft if something so trivial as a bump is bothering me now. _Her face scrunched slightly in distaste at the thought.

Her mental assessments of her current level of badassery were interrupted when she felt a presence in front of her. Immediately she looked up to see Thor crouched down in front of her, no longer wearing his cape, but wearing the bright smile that was signature Thor. Natasha blinked momentarily at the smile's brightness and then again when she saw he was offering her his thick, _warm_-looking cape. One more blink brought her gaze back up to his as she processed all the ways in which the offer could be considered an insult or overly familiar or inappropriate before, surprisingly, Thor beat her to it.

"Do not," he warned with an all-too-knowing look, "over think this offer. You are cold, and I do not feel your weather's effects so… strongly." Well if that wasn't the nicest way of saying "you're weaker than me" Natasha didn't know what was. But then Thor continued, as if sensing her inner complaints.

"Also, the rest of my attire is quite warm enough for me," he gestured to his practically mint-condition armor and then to her rather torn – read: shredded to the point of near indecency – SHIELD uniform, "whereas yours has taken some damage in our recent battle. And I, for one, do not think your valiancy should be repaid with freezing and misery." He ended with a smile and Natasha conceded that this was just Thor Being Thor. And that was that. She accepted the cape with a happy smile that she knew would make the Thunderer happy in turn and proceeded to wrap herself in the warm, luxurious fabric. Fleetingly she wondered how it _was_ so warm when it had been resting against the cool metal of Thor's armor when Tony joined them back in the cabin wearing a disgruntled expression.

Thor, who had reclaimed his seat, took note of the expression as well and asked, "Is there trouble, Stark?" Tony grimaced dramatically.

"Yeah, I'd say there's trouble," he grumbled before glancing towards Natasha. "You remember that helicopter that was shooting at us when we landed? Looks like not all the bullets missed. We've been leaking gas since the beginning of that fight and Pilot Pushover up there only just now decided to tell me 'bout it. If I'd known earlier, I probably could have patched it up, but it's too late now, we're going to have to make an emergency landing and wait for the backup jet that's on its way."

Only mentally groaning, Natasha asked calmly, "How long?"

"Said ETA's about forty-five minutes," Tony shrugged, still looking mildly irritated, but resuming his seat by Thor across from Natasha. "I could probably get back to base myself faster, but I'd hate to leave you guys without my sparkling wit as entertainment." Here he waggled his eyebrows and Natasha fought the urge to role her eyes. Tony was incorrigible, really. And Pepper was a Saint. Forever and for always.

Still, as she felt the jet descend, she couldn't help but share his irritation. Sure, Thor and Stark could fly. And given the right incentive, Hulk could carry multiple individuals. But there was no question about going out there in that storm and flying through the rain and lightning like that. They were just too tired, and exhaustion led to mistakes that she'd rather not be made at any height in the air. So they'd sit tight, she supposed, for now.

At least she was warm.

* * *

They'd been grounded for only about five minutes or so. Clint had woken up when the jet had touched down, but Steve and Bruce were still way out of it. Natasha was slightly concerned that they'd over done it and her brow actually furrowed in worry when Clint's breath hissed through his teeth as he tried to reposition himself. She sincerely hoped that nothing was to the point of puncturing particularly important vitals. Her first aid skills only really covered military basics, which did not include patching up hole-punched lungs. So she sent a reproachful glare at the sniper until he settled back with a sheepish grimace and a mildly exasperated thumbs up.

Tony was back in the cockpit, trying to see if he could rewire the aircraft to run off electricity instead of gasoline, all the while complaining loudly about how this was supposed to be his weekend off and making the greenhorn pilot feel suitably guilty. Natasha knew though, that the kid would never fail to inform his superiors of a problem again, and had to admire Tony's underhanded psychological tactics.

Thor was actually being kind of reserved, propped up with his shoulder against the wall and gazing at the rain out the porthole window beside him. She watched him for a moment before he stirred and met her gaze. Absently she noted that he truly did have warrior instincts if he could feel someone's focused attention so easily. And she idly wondered if she could somehow manage to observe him without his noticing – as a test of her skills, maybe – or if his abilities were simply part and parcel to the whole god thing. Then Thor cleared his throat thoughtfully and gave her a somewhat unreadable look.

"The Iron Man said that we would not depart for some time yet?" he asked.

"Not for another forty minutes," Natasha replied, not bothering to check the time. Her internal clock was always accurate anyways. Thor nodded, seeming as if his thoughts were far away.

"I would go out for a while then, if there are no objections," he said after a moment, throwing the spy for a loop, though the only evidence was a raised eyebrow.

"I don't see why not," she shrugged, curious despite her nonchalance. A glance to Thor's left showed that Clint too had no idea what was going on in the Norse god's head. He raised his shoulders slightly in a great impression of saying, "_Don't look at me."_

Thor rumbled his approval and sketched a thankful nod to Natasha before hefting his hammer, striding to the back of the jet and gently bopping the button for the door release. It seemed he was learning to control his strength, Natasha noted in approval. Good thing too, the mechanics had been starting to sweat over all the equipment they'd had to fix or replace.

A gust of cold wind from outside drew her attention and Natasha watched as Thor stepped out into the freezing deluge, no more affected than one would be walking out to a nice sunny spring day. She refused to admit she was impressed.

He raised his face to the heavens and seemed to revel in the moment before he turned back and flashed an exhilarated grin at Natasha. Then he hit the close button just outside the hatch and blasted off into the air. The resultant gust of wind blew the door shut with a grinding clang that had Natasha huffing in amusement as Steve and Bruce jolted into wakefulness – with definite drool marks on both their cheeks.

Wrapping the cape tighter around herself, she meandered over to the porthole window Thor had been looking out and settled into his abandoned seat while Clint explained the reason for their landing to the others.

Tuning them out mostly, she wondered what could have captured the god's attention, when she saw lightning split the sky magnificently, lighting up their surroundings in an almost ethereal way. Craning her head so she could look up at the sky above them, Natasha could only just see the outline of Thor against the backdrop of swirling clouds and whipping rains. And when the thunder boomed, she thought it carried the sound of laughter with it.

_Maybe this was what he needed_, she thought, as she watched her teammate dive and careen throughout the sky with complete abandon. She certainly hoped this helped with whatever had been eating at him. Content with the thought, Natasha rested her head against the window, allowing the cool glass to sooth her headache.

And when she fell asleep, it was to the sound of chuckling thunder and the feeling of warmth surrounding her.

* * *

Thortasha? Oh no! You caught me! The game is up! lol

I admit that I'm a bit of a closet Thortasha shipper, not gonna lie. This one's dedicated to all 3 of the other Thortasha crackshippers out there XD (it'snotevenromatichahahahaha)

I have a lot of these, but I think I'll pace their publishing (soIcangiveyoustuffwhenIgetstuckonmystories)

Thanks for reading! And once again, feedback would be most appreciated ^,^


End file.
